Lidia Aguilar

Lidia Aguilar is single mom and a full-time janitor working for CGA at the Exxon Mobil building in Houston Texas. Even though she has been a janitor for six years, she only makes $6.50 and hour, has no paid holidays or sick days, and has no health insurance. She is now looking for a second job in order to make ends meet.

Anytime Lidia or her nine-year-old daughter Mayra gets sick, Lidia has to stay at home and forgo wages for the day. That only complicates buying her own medication since her employer offers her no health insurance. "I have to use the little savings I have to buy medication when we need it."

Lidia struggles as hard as she does for her daughter Mayra. "I tell her to study hard so she can get ahead and not have what's happened to me happen to her. She tells me not to worry, that she will study and then she'll take care of me." Lidia says her daughter, who regularly attends the workers' meetings understands what's going on, and knows you have to fight to defend your rights.

"I'm very happy that we've won our union. Now I have a chance to make a better living for my daughter's wellbeing." The union is also important to Lidia for other reasons. "There is a lot of discrimination against us Latinos at work and finally we'll be able to defend ourselves through our union."

A living wage, sick days and affordable health insurance are also very important goals to be achieved at the negotiating table. "I need to earn more for my family-- I want to be able to provide for Mayra."

Organizing her co-workers has been rewarding but not always easy. The hardest thing for Lidia is to see other janitors in the same situation as her, scared of signing union cards for fear of being fired. "I was never afraid though," she says. "I knew they couldn't push me out the door for organizing. And even if they had fired me for fighting for a better life, I'd still do it all over again."